In the fall semester, librarians and staff were equally overwhelmed by chat, AAL, phone, and email requests from retired Rutgers faculty for continued access to the resources of Rutgers University Libraries for both research and pleasure. No remote access with NetID, barcode not working, no retiree ID obtained… you name it, we have heard about it.
Several questions came directly from SEBS/NJAES faculty or were forwarded by SEBS IT.
A faculty emeritus or emerita stuck in a loop while trying to use their NetID for off-campus access to databases, journals, or e-books is not unusual at all, but getting stuck in a similar loop of referrals from one Rutgers unit to the next is more than embarrassing.
Since January 2021, a group of us in NBL (Rose Barbalace, Stephanie Bartz, Michele Tokar Tuazon, and Judit Ward) have been working to identify potential problems and find solutions. To make everyone’s life easier, we put all the information in a LibGuide for faculty emeriti. We hope it will also help librarians and staff make better referrals or find instant solutions. The tabs speak for themselves, and they have a lot of information to offer.
Do you know who qualifies? Where to get a retiree ID card? What to do if someone is not listed as emeritus/a? You have all the answers on the “First Things First” tab.
What is the best way to access Rutgers resources off campus? Hint: VPN with Cisco AnyConnect. (Hat tip: SEBS IT). The link for how to set it up is on the “Library Access” tab. Can’t find the details of library privileges for emeriti? See all of them in an at-a-glance box on the same page.
The “Library Services” tab includes everything from borrowing to article delivery to scholarly communication. The “Continuing Research” tab offers resources on searching, citing, and publishing, along with links to related guides. The image of the card catalog in the Library Annex makes many of us smile in reminiscence.
To engage our emeriti once they find this page, we added event calendars, news and updates, social media, and help options under the last two tabs called “Keep Up With the Libraries” and How Can We Help?” (check out the image of the beautiful Chang Library, too).
We admit that we have all learned something new while compiling these resources, which just proves the complexity of potential issues and the depth and breadth of the requests each of us fulfills daily.
The guide will remain a work in progress for a while, including the images we have selected for the first version. If you have any content to add, please do not hesitate to contact us.
(A version of this article was posted in the New Brunswick Libraries Newsletter.)